Monthly Archives: June 2018

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“There may be some ‘truths here and there’ and cases in isolation – but not the manner this story was written where the writer decided to be both architect of the story and both judge and jury!”

MOST OF MEDIA STORY ON BANGLADESH WORKERS, BUSINESSMAN AND SYNDICATE FAKE NEWS SAYS MALAYSIA ASEAN APEC LEAD CONSUMERIST?

I have been addressing the Bangladeshi workers scandal and foreign workers issues from the days of the late deputy home minister Megat Junid in the 1980s – so this is not new to me!

There may be some ‘truths here and there’ and cases in isolation – but not the manner this story was written where the writer decided to be both architect of the story and both judge and jury!

Seriously you have evidence – hard evidence that over 100,000 Bangladeshi workers paid RM20k each to syndicate involving ‘Datuk Seri’ fat cat to work in Malaysia?

I challenge you – go public with the evidence!

Name him if you have the courage!

I am flabbergasted to read a media piece certainly done in very poor taste without collaborative evidence that over 100,000 Bangladeshi workers paid RM20k each to syndicate involving ‘Datuk Seri’ fat cat to work in Malaysia?

Is that for starters a journalistic language from a mainstream media in Malaysia?

Interestingly the term ‘syndicate’ was used quite liberally without any caution to the laws of defamation?

Malaysians are told that a human trafficking syndicate, spearheaded by a Bangladeshi businessman with alleged political connections with the Home Ministry, raked in at least RM2bil in just two years from Bangladeshi workers looking to land jobs in Malaysia.

Now where is the evidence?

Please do show us the money trail?

Please do also name the said businessman so that he can initiate legal proceedings under Malaysia’s libel laws if the allegations made, printed is false!

And adding to that – speculative and utter garbage printed on a paper that is already losing readership!

Which includes the frivolous claim that “investigation” revealed that the workers paid RM20,000 each to their local agents who then paid half of the sum to the syndicate to facilitate work permit approvals and flight tickets to Malaysia.

Any legally trained person even a first year law student will be right in saying that statement in itself is suspect and speculative bordering on bias and defamation!

So who did the investigations?

Please go on record!

Where is the evidence of the money trail?

Where is the names trail of the agents and their company’s name?

It is learned that since late 2016, more than 100,000 Bangladeshi workers have been brought into the country under the system, while more than 100,000 are waiting for their turn.

What system are you alluding to?

The manner the article is worded it gives the notion that the system used is illegal and so is it?

Or is it a system well documented, approved at the highest levels of the Malaysian government?

If indeed as I put to you that it was a multi-million ringgit technology driven system – a state of the art – being also now introduced in several other countries – that was initiated after a great deal of discussions, presentations and reviews with various stakeholders in the last government, the civil servants of the Home and Human Resources Ministry!

There was also a public presentation of the state of the art technology prior to it being rolled out for stakeholders, members of the civil society and the media!

The said program’s sole agenda was to address issues and problems of illegalities, falsification of documents, of medical irregularities, bogus approvals, illegalities, needed tracking of vital documentation and the addressing to deny real syndicated involvement of both bogus agents and Bangladeshi cartels in the narrative!

If you are really honest please go public and name that “businessman” rather than use innuendos and references like “mastermind behind the organised and “legalised” multibillion-ringgit human trafficking scam.”

Only an absolute idiot will say the above when a common check with the Ministry of Home Affairs will show that the entire program was an approved program!

It is easy to make allegations and play up when one hardly knows the issue and it’s under currents!

The real motive of the article was exposed when even the personal details of the individual was whacked!

What is if the said person is married to a Malaysian?

There are thousands of such cases in Malaysia!

Why pick it to give an evil impression on one’s personal life?
Is this journalism or garbage journalism?

Can those of us who are really qualified on this issue and aware of the episode now also allege that this report seems a plot by over 1500 agents, some politicians and others connect to the dueling two premiers of that country and others who in the past have abused the Bangladeshi approvals and now using the recent change of government in Malaysia and anger issues herein to log in and play an issue that is certainly not what it is portrayed as!

Do not take my word for it go check with the officials and civil servants at the Home Ministry before writing such stuff!

One using the same analogy can also then claim certain groups sidelined are now using certain Malaysian conduits and media post GE14 anger – to play this up as a ‘pay back’ rather than for their professionalism and ethical standards in the Bangladesh manpower industry!

SO MOH – WHEN CAN WE HAVE OUR FOOD HANDLERS ACT – A MUST FOR MALAYSIA SAYS MALAYSIA ASEAN APEC LEAD CONSUMERIST DR JACOB GEORGE!

February 5th 2010 I spoke and highlighted at length on the critical need of a well addressed and comprehensive Food Handlers Act for Malaysia!

I remember my discussions with both the Minister and the then director General of Health who were very supportive of my concerns!

Fast forward 23 June 2018 – today mainstream newspapers went at length on the same topic in a run up and justification of shutting the door on cooks in the Malaysian business kitchen!

As always these are two separate issues!

If you want to close the door go ahead, but, only after a white paper on the justification of such, a comprehensive discussion with stakeholders at the gaps, and the facts revolving why such a fast track knee jerk reaction without consultation and whose interest being served?

Most important – what will the economic costs be to businesses nationwide at all the tiers?

And the flashpoints in escalation of minefields in international diplomacy with our neighbors whose citizens are sent packing off without proper and adequate remuneration or heads up to respective governments therein?

So if you are going to minimize foreigners in our hospitality/service sector first have the common decency to start a conversation with the real stakeholders!

Not the “political high powered business mafia heads who have been operating from rag to riches using foreign workers funds from the onset to build their today’s brand names in the Malaysian space!

Let us initiate the protocols and the guidelines but shut up until the system is in place!

Now back to my appeal for a Food Handlers Act!

Yes, I sound like John the Baptist – a voice crying in the wilderness urging, appealing and screaming for a comprehensive Food Handlers Act in Malaysia!

The reasons are aplenty from the ineffectiveness of the Food Act 1985 which is outdated, to the sorry, corrupt and ineffectiveness of our enforcement and total invasion of this sector by foreigners from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Africa, Middle East and West Asian countries to our own Malaysians!

With the reemergence of many once eradicated diseases we need to question and seek answers to the present problems brought about by apathy, incompetence, corruption and sheer lack of political and professional will!

So if my appeal for a Food Handlers Act is favorable –

What do they cover?

The Regulations applies to all types of food and drink and their ingredients.

But some businesses – generally manufacturers of products of animal origin, such as dairies or wholesale fish markets – follow their own product specific regulations.

These regulations are listed

Identifying and controlling food hazards

As the proprietor of a food business, you are expected to:

make sure food is supplied or sold in a hygienic way;

identify food safety hazards;

know which steps in your activities are critical for food safety;

4.ensure safety controls are in place, maintained and reviewed.

Controls do not have to be complex.

There are systems that can be used by food businesses to ensure that hazards are identified and controls are in place.

For example – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is one of a number of such systems.

The Regulations aim to set out basic hygiene principles, which are generally not new. But their emphasis is different from previous regulations.

They focus more strongly on how to identify and control food safety risks at each stage of the process of preparing and selling food.

Rather than simply following a list of rules, the Regulations let you assess the risk to food safety and then apply controls relevant to your own situation.

This will work provided you are accountable and ethical both a majority of ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ – business head are not in their pursuit of maximizing profits!

But in all fairness – not all the requirements for the structure and equipment of food premises will apply to you.

Some are followed by the words where appropriate or where necessary!

For example, one provision states that, where appropriate floors must allow surface drainage.

But where you have a system to ensure water does not build up, so that there is no risk to food safety, actual floor drains may not be necessary.

So there is no absolute requirement to have them.

Basic requirements for food businesses

Food premises should: (and where *Malaysian food outlets fail!)

be clean and maintained in good repair;

be designed and

constructed to permit good hygiene practices;

have an adequate supply of potable (drinking) water;

have suitable controls in place to protect against pests;

have adequate natural and/or artificial lighting;

have sufficient natural and/or mechanical ventilation;

provide clean lavatories which do not lead directly into food rooms;

have adequate hand washing facilities;

be provided with adequate drainage.

Rooms where food is prepared, treated or processed should generally have surface finishes which are easy to clean and, where necessary, disinfect.

This would, for instance, apply to wall, floor and equipment finishes.

The rooms should also have:

adequate facilities for washing food and equipment;

Adequate facilities for the storage and removal of food waste.

Of course, many of the Regulations are basic minimum hygiene standards which apply to every food business.

But how they are applied still depends on the situation.

For example, every food premises must be kept clean.

But how they are cleaned, and how often, will be different for a manufacturer of ready-to-eat meals than for bakery selling bread or even fast food outlets!

Supplies of raw materials

Do not buy or supply any raw materials if you think that even after sorting or processing they could make food unfit for human consumption.

Any material which you suspect or know to be infected or contaminated with parasites or foreign substances to this extent should be rejected.

Quality of Water in food

There must be an adequate supply of potable (drinking) water, to be used whenever necessary to ensure food is not contaminated.

In the vast majority of cases, this is supplied via the public water supply.

And our public water system today is compromised!

And. if there is any doubt about the quality of a water supply, you should seek advice from your local council Environmental Health Services.

Personal hygiene for food handlers

Now the meat of my argument!

Anyone who works in a food handling area must maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness.

If any employee reports that they are suffering from any such illness, the business may have to exclude them from food handling areas.

This is today questionable in Malaysian outlets!

Such action should be taken urgently.

If you have any doubt about the need to exclude, you should seek urgent medical advice!

Employers must not send them to work fully knowing that they are ill as many do today because those ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ types with their “political connections’ want the workers to work irrespective what?

Preventing food contamination

Here we have failed in super class!

All prepared food is openly displayed and from customers to insects and pests (rats included!)

Food handlers must protect food and ingredients against contamination which is likely to render them unfit for human consumption or a health hazard.

For example, uncooked poultry should not contaminate ready-to-eat foods, either through direct contact or through work surfaces or equipment.

How often have we seen them together!

Training and supervising food handlers

Our food handlers come from challenged societies in several ASEAN and South Indian continent – where several diseases continue to operate more so ones Malaysia had in the past eradicated but since the arrivals of workers and big profits for politicians, manpower agents, business operators cum agents in the greed for the foreign workers commissions this is been compromised!

So it is vital that food handlers must receive adequate supervision, instruction and/or training in food hygiene.

Do they?

Certainly No!

Each food business must decide what training or supervision their food handlers need by identifying the areas of their work most likely to affect food hygiene.

Many of the guidelines in this guidance apply equally to food businesses trading from temporary or occasional locations like those under the tree, stalls, by hawkers, entrenched sites, canteens and so forth.

But because not all of them will be practical, there are also some slightly different requirements.

However, wherever food is sold, two basic rules always apply:

there should be adequate facilities to prepare and serve food safely; and

Food handling procedures should avoid exposing food to risk of a contamination.

Even some fast food and high end outlets are guilty of this from consumer feedbacks and our observations.

I have repeatedly asked those operating under such licenses to read again the conditions of their franchise from the mother company in the United States, the UK, Europe, and Spain, Germany or the cold terrains of the North Pole!

Can our stakeholders bravely commit and say – No to any more food poisoning incidences or worst the continued increase of diseases we had at one time eradicated!

The young boy stated that he wanted to donate his piggy bank to Tabung Harapan because after GE14, he was aware that the nation was in need and as a citizen he wanted to do his part!

This is super patriotism at its best!

Unlike the great theft, the nation has witnessed over 60 years, of the nation’s jewels at each and every tier of political life, as a culture under the guise of ‘race and religion” exhibited by very powerful politicians of the land!

These shameless politicians and others are an embarrassment to a struggling nation!

But inexplicably, this young boy’s good deed was frowned upon and made into a controversy!

His response was attacked as a stunt!

Worse his attacker had serious deficiency of understanding in the principle of good deeds which resulted in inappropriate comments on this little boy kindness and love towards his country!

I wonder why the same person made no statements on another, who makes so much political noise, unwelcome statements like a loose cannon showing no respect to both the premier and elected representatives of GE14?

But the great news is, Malaysians post GE14 know the difference between political chameleons and pretenders and true bred Malaysians!

‘It is easy to release press releases, try to be the face of the tragedy, be the head of a pressure group, go on media blitz, make grandiose statements, stage, look and plant debris but better if one is in the trenches and front line at ground zero like IIT370 and more importantly assisting us to raise funds for this venture!’

MH370 (9M-MRO) is nowhere else but in the Sumatran waters and had been from day one before both high powered and connected third parties and adventurers/shenanigans played a high powered game of thrones with this episode moving the markers!

And the reasons and their aspirations in doing so will be the subject of a future analysis that will be addressed by my team at IIT370!

But now – I go on record thanking not just my team at IIT370 but the countless new friends and observers calling for a comprehensive look at the area we have been crying out to be the site of that missing aircraft!

Most interesting now the witnesses had come forward to go on record that they are willing to be put on a lie detector to ascertain the authenticity of their claims!

I am now facilitating the finances by private and personal funding to bring these individuals to meet the authorities who include the Malaysian premier and newly minted Transport Minister!

It is easy to release press releases, try to be the face of the tragedy, be the head of a pressure group, go on media blitz, make grandiose statements, look and plant debris but better if one is in the trenches and front line at ground zero like IIT370 and more importantly assisting us to raise funds for this venture!

More so as there is now growing momentum to look at this site and I want to thank the team and our new friends and others who have come on board despite in the past having suspicion on our presence here and our motives!

Now they know our goal was always first locating the aircraft, then initiating recovery efforts, and thirdly and most importantly facilitating the religious rites in a manner that befits such a tragedy!

These are the most paramount issues on the table that need to be addressed – period!

“Gone are the days of those Chameleon Politicians and great orators who say different things to different audiences to gain power only to go back to the old ways of nepotism, cronyism, corruption, race, religion and ultra-fascist political principals, while claiming to be “committed to reforms?”

LEAD CONSUMERIST DR JACOB GEORGE ADVISES NEW GOVERNMENT NO NEED TO RUSH BUT PLAN STRATEGICALLY TO AVOID PREVIOUS MINEFIELDS AND CORRUPT CHAMELEON POLITICIANS

I am uplifted to hear the views of brother Liew Chin Tong which were positioned rightly and warning against overconfidence or a return to old style politics of race religion and super corruption!

This is why I have cautioned both the newly minted Health Minister and Agriculture Minister from making statements which were rather inaccurate and seeking the source on that data!

The health ministry must immediately address the monopolies within, the abuse of procurement and the racist’s policies that discriminate which led to the brain drain in the country!

I must advice the health minister the ‘black hands’ of these are still in the power mix of the health ministry and the sooner these shenanigans are removed the better!

I am certain these MOH war lords know who I am alluding to since I have addressed MOH woes since 1983!

You are free to check with former health DG Dr Mohamed Ismail Bin Merican, the best we have ever had or the same with both health ministers – Chua Jui Meng and Dr Chua Soi Lek!

No point asking our medical experts and specialist who have turned their backs on Malaysia to return when we have yet to treat those who did not leave but continued to serve with super dedication and sacrifice despite the super wicked treatment handed out to them!

And do I have stories to tell you YB Minister of Health if you have the time to hear in confidence!

I say the same to the newly minted Agriculture minister!

Your statement on the alleged 30 to 50 percent reduction of prices went really bad on the ground!

But today you clarified and I welcome that!

You are indeed a very intelligent politician and I was personally rooting for you to be made Menteri Besar of Johor but it was not to be!

I extend the same offer to you as well to the new cabinet as I did to the former cabinet!

This is why I am glad that Saudara Liew Chin Tong went public with his observations which were very real issues needed to be deliberated on!

There is simply no doubt that the GE14 victory was because of three pertinent bricks – namely the super hatred for the previous government and those special individuals who embarrassed race, religion and public trust!

Secondly, it was because of the return of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in whom the people trusted and no other – period!

Thirdly, the dedication and sacrifice of Malaysians returning home to vote at personal expense to what they stated was to – “Save their Country Malaysia!”

I know personally of individuals who came back from the UK, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Korea to vote!

They took the challenge and smashed that ceiling glass of racist rant to invite in that we are all Malaysians first!

So I cannot but agree that the new government must address the economic issues faced by all Malaysians – especially those from the middle- and lower-income groups – if it is to remain in power!

Gone are the days of those Chameleon Politicians and great orators who say different things to different audiences to gain power only to go back to the old ways of nepotism, cronyism, corruption, race, religion and ultra-fascist political principals, while claiming to be “committed to reforms?”

If indeed the implemented policies draw out a higher standard of living addressing the inequalities of the marketplace we should be alright!

Failing which – you will be challenged at GE15 by political challengers both old and new perhaps more improved, galvanized and better equipped to reach out to the then voters both new and old without fear!

My advice do not be foolish to fast track ministerial portfolios with your own set of war lords and supporters as the “spoils of war” but ascertain if they are indeed the best person for those positions!

There is no shame in looking outside the box as well!

For now let us position a team who are interested to uplift the nation and its people by addressing past abuses, crimes, which includes alleged murder?

Let us also look at the creation of jobs, uplifting wages, destroying monopolies, destructible foreign labor dependence policies, putting an end to nepotism, corruption and cronyism.

Malaysians are no longer afraid of voting for change!

Or replacing chameleon politicians irrespective of their rhetoric both here and abroad!

And let us never forget that there is always an avenue for the possibility of new political forces emerging or new political parties being formed in the future to remove wolves in sheep’s clothing!

OVER 200 POLICE REPORTS TO BE INITIATED AGAINST TWITTER ACCOUNT HOLDER FOR SEDITION & DEFAMATION! A troll masquerading as a journalist decides to launch a twitter account under the ‘banner of justice’ whose per-occupation seems to be indulging in personal … Continue reading →